Why Seller protection is crucial for any OTC Crypto Marketplace

by

Richard

Posted on December 27, 2018 3:43 AM

An OTC crypto marketplace is one which is designed to facilitate cryptocurrency transactions as they were intended. Between people, from Buyer to Seller.

The way this works is e.g. you want to buy some Bitcoin or Ethereum (both of which can be bought at MoonTrade.org) you go to the "Buy" section of the website and contact one of the many Sellers whose ads you see.

You have the option to select how you would like to pay the Seller as well. It could be in cash, via a bank transfer (like Zelle), via PayPal or Venmo and if you are in Europe, Russia or Africa via TransferWise, Qiwi and M-Pesa respectively. There are many more options like Gift Cards etc as well.

Once you have selected how you'd like to pay the Seller, you click on the ad you like, which opens a short chat with the Seller, he gives you the payment details, you make the payment and upload proof and he releases the cryptocurrency to you (which you can see in your wallet).

Congrats, you just bought some crypto from a another crypto enthusiast and no one is nosing around in your business as two consenting adults.

Now, one thing that you may notice, is that some Sellers ask for a higher evidence threshold to prove your identity. This is not because they are a Nosy Nancy, it is far simpler. You see, as the Buyer, using any of the methods described above, you always have the option to protect yourself from having unauthorised payments sent from your account i.e. you can reverse the payment you sent.

In crypto however, the freedom and privacy to manage your own money also comes with a responsibility, the responsibility to be safe, once you send someone any amount of Bitcoin or Ethereum from your wallet (MoonTrade.org, provides both a Bitcoin and Ethereum wallet where you can receive or send BTC or ETH), the amount of crypto you send cannot be reversed by any authority once it has been received by the recipient.

This means that once the Seller has released the crypto to you, he cannot get it back.

On the other hand, now let's look at it from the Seller's perspective, out of the hundreds of great people he deals with on a daily basis, some will be new people he doesn't know, most of these new people are perfectly honest and just want to dip their toe into crypto and buy some Bitcoin using their Zelle or PayPal or Venmo etc, however, sadly, there will be a few rascals mixed within these new Buyers who will assure the Seller that everything is fine and the funds have been sent to Seller's paypal/venmo/zelle etc. and once the Seller releases the crypto, these sneaky people call Zelle/PayPal/Venmo etc and claim they were defrauded and get their money back.

Now what happened to the Seller? The Seller lost the money he was promised by the Buyer, their Zelle or PayPal got suspended and what is worse is they have no way to get their crypto back from the person who cheated them......sounds horrible doesn't it?

As any good, normal person would observe, the risk of trading crypto is highest on the Seller's side, the Buyer can just pretend to pay, get the crypto then reverse the payment and make off with both the money and the Bitcoin but the Seller loses on both ends. Some Sellers are regular folks with families who are earning a living from trading and this is devastating to them. Most OTC exchanges let the Sellers suffer and some even punish the Seller on top of the suffering he is already going through.

At MoonTrade.org we are aware of the serious nature of the business, we know that OTC trading can be a wonderful way to make friends, get in touch with great people and talk to like minded individuals, however we also know that every time a Seller chooses to trust a Buyer, almost all the risks are at the Seller's end and the Buyer usually has little to worry about. We talked to many, many Sellers who have been burned not only by Cheaters but also the exchanges they helped build up, which is why at MoonTrade we place a special emphasis on both Buyer and Seller protection. We have many excellent ex-OTC traders advising us and that is how the idea of this exchange was born over an year ago (Yes! MoonTrade has been under development since January 2018!).

Not only are we aware of all the scams that Buyers pull, we are also aware of malpractices on the selling side owing to the extensive experience and interviews from the hundreds of traders we've conducted over the last year. That is also the reason we don't just offer Bitcoin, but also offer Ethereum (and soon, XRP, Ripple!) in one place. We wanted to create a safe place for Sellers where their troubles are heard and acted upon and we wanted to create a smooth experience for Buyers who wish to do all their OTC purchases of different Cryptocurrencies in one exchange rather than having to memorize ten different websites.

We hope this short primer brings both Buyers and Sellers together. You can always get more advice by emailing us at:ContactUs@MoonTrade.org
.... but the best way to learn is to jump right in, so register on MoonTrade today, explore the various Sellers and Buyers, come back to this article to understand their position and yours and start trading. Remember, in case anything happens, we have you covered. =)